For the second straight game, South Alabama knocked off a first-place team and dealt that opponent its first Sun Belt Conference loss of the season.

The victim this time was Troy, a 74-71 loser before a season-best crowd of 3,000-plus at the Mitchell Center. The Jaguars (10-8 overall, 3-3 Sun Belt) held the Trojans (11-7, 5-1) to just 25 first-half points and just 36.5% shooting from the field in the game.

“Any time we square up with those guys, it’s going to be a battle,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “Tonight I was proud of our guys. They really showed some toughness and some resilience because it wasn’t easy. … Our guys showed some real toughness, some grit on the glass in the second half, made some tough plays, finished again some contact, played well against their pressure late.”

South Alabama led by as many as 13 points in the second before Troy began a furious rally in the final six minutes. The Trojans got within four at 70-66 with 2:52 to play, but Thomas Howell’s dunk off an assist from Samuel Tabe put the Jaguars back up six heading into the final two minutes.

Neither team made a field goal after that until Myles Rigsby hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to set the final score. South Alabama got a pair of huge rebounds — one by Judah Brown on offense, one by Tabe on defense — in the final minute to hang onto the lead.

Tabe finished with a season-high 19 points, along with seven rebounds and five assists, in 35 minutes for South Alabama. The transfer from Division II Seton Hill has scored 19, 18, 15 and 17 points in his last four games, the last three since moving into the starting lineup.

“I’m trusting my teammates and my teammates are trusting me,” Tabe said. “We’ve just been playing well as a team — sharing the ball consistently, just moving it around, everybody gets touches. It’s a good vibe, everybody gets the ball, everybody feels good. So I just give all the praise to my teammates for trusting me.”

Rigsby (11 points) and Christyon Eugene (18) were the only players in double figures for Troy, which made only 9 of 30 from 3-point range and missed eight of 24 free-throw attempts. Rigsby finished with a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Isiah Gaiter — South Alabama’s leading scorer at nearly 17 points per game coming into Thursday — got all 13 of his points in the second half, while Howell finished with 10. Tyrell “Turbo” Jones had one of the better all-around games of his three-year Jaguars career, finishing with 17 points and five rebounds, and hitting four 3-pointers in the first half to help USA take a 30-25 lead into the break.

“If you told me that Gaiter would have zero points in the first half, I would say we’ll be digging out of a big hole in that final 20 minutes,” Riley said. “But Turbo has been shooting the ball really well off the bounce and he’s shown he can do that some throughout his career.

“… And his leadership out there was really good. He was gassed. We had him guarding the ball, he got ball screened 1,000 times. He was having to kind of carry the load for us.”

Thursday’s win was the first for the Jaguars at home in Sun Belt play, after being swept two weeks ago by Appalachian State and Georgia State. They are 2-1 on the road in-conference, including a 91-85 win at then-first-place Marshall last Saturday.

South Alabama improves to 9-2 vs. Troy in Riley’s six seasons, including 6-0 in Mobile. Scott Cross’ Trojans last won at the Mitchell Center in 2018, the Jaguars’ final season under Matthew Graves.

“This rivalry means a ton to me,” Riley said. “I have a ton of respect for Troy and that’s one of the reasons it means so much. I tell people all the time … if you understand the passion from our fan base and their fan base for this rivalry is what makes it really special. The way that they run the program too, Scott does it the right way. He’s a heck of a coach.”

New South Alabama football coach Major Applewhite was introduced to the crowd and spoke briefly during a first-half timeout. The Jaguars’ offensive coordinator the last three years, Applewhite will be formally introduced as head coach at a press conference on Friday.

“Thank you very much for this opportunity,” Applewhite said. ” … I just want to tell you how much the last three years have meant to my family and I. We’re from the I-10 corridor and we love this area. The last few years has been an absolute blessing for us and our family. We love this town. We love this university. I’m so proud of this university, what we’ve done in a short amount of time, and I am absolutely ready to take that to the next level.

“We’re going to hire a great staff. The guys had a great workout this morning. We’re getting ready for spring ball. Thank you to (athletics director Joel) Erdmann for giving me this opportunity. I’m truly happy to be your head coach. … Thank you so much for being here.”

South Alabama is back home Saturday at 3 p.m. vs. Louisiana. Troy travels to Southern Miss at 2 p.m. the same day.